How To Store Carrots From The Garden

Last Updated on May 8, 2021 by cmoarz

Carrot season is in full swing, and this means you’re probably swamped with them, whether it’s from the farmer’s market or from your own garden. It’s not like you can store them all in the fridge, theirs just too many! So What are you going to do with all of these carrots? Here’s how to store carrots from the garden or anywhere else you might have picked them up.

Storing carrots in the fridge

As we said, this is one of the most common ways people store their carrots. But it’s not a good long term solution for many reasons:

• The refrigerator will cause the carrots to lose their flavor.
• Carrots take up a lot of room in your fridge, and they can start to rot if you don’t have enough space. There’s also a risk that one day all of them could go bad at once!
• They only last about 1 month in the fridge, which makes them unfit for a long-term storage solution.

Even with all these issues, Storing fresh carrots in the fridge is the best way to preserve them for the short term. If you have space that is, Which is unlikely if you’ve just harvest several rows of carrots!

Storing carrots in a root cellar or basement

This is only possible for some of us, this might not be possible for the many apartment dwellers that are reading this!

Storing them is simple, just add layers of damp sawdust, carrots, sawdust, carrots, etc into a container large enough to hold many layers. The sawdust shouldn’t be too wet, just damp.

This will keep them from drying out, while still allowing air to circulate to keep the carrots from rotting.

It also keeps them in the dark.

If you don’t have sawdust, use sand or straw. Just be sure the sand isn’t beach sand and full of salts. That will pull the moisture right out of the carrots and mummify them!

The best way to store carrots from the garden is the following:

Storing carrots in the freezer

Freezing carrots is the best way to store carrots for the long term. The process is easy, although far more prep work is involved on the carrots.

You can’t freeze carrots whole. You’ll need to peel and slice them, then blanch the slices before freezing.

To blanch carrots slices, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the slices for about 30 seconds and then remove them from the boiling water with tongs or a slotted spoon.

Drop them into a preprepared bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and pat dry with paper towels.

Spread them out thin on a baking sheet, throw them into the freezer for about an hour. At that point, you can store them in plastic bags or containers and keep them frozen until use.

Frozen carrots will stay fresh for at least a year. Plenty of time to enjoy this delicious vegetable in the winter months.

Dehydrating carrots

So you don’t have a basement, You don’t have room in your fridge, and your deep freeze is already full of stuff you haven’t gotten around to eating yet, Now what?

Luckily we still have options!

Here are the steps for dehydrating carrots:

Peel and chop carrots into uniform-sized pieces.

Blanch the carrots like you would if you were about to freeze them.

Place in a single layer on dehydrator trays for about six hours at 135 degrees Fahrenheit, turning the veggies every so often to keep them from sticking or burning.

Once they’re crispy, store them in airtight containers, mason jars with oxygen absorbers, or use an air sealer.

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can pick one up here:

Last update on 2023-12-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Dehydrated carrots will last for six months to a year if stored properly.